This Dream of Mine
by Condor-K
Summary: A trainer sets out to defeat the Johto league, but this journey isn't as easy as one might think. As this trainer struggles through the Johto Region, he must make a decision. Is he really pursuing his own dream, or is it someone else's?
1. Chapter 1

The fact that people watch my challenge isn't the most annoying part. Sure when I reach the point it becomes clear that I'll lose the fight, I'm no stranger to catcalls and jeers from some rowdy members of the small crowd in Goldenrod City's gym.

That day at least, the gym leader's reaction was the worst part, after our battle officially concluded and Whitney's pokémon, a miltank, stands victorious while I recalled Magby from the battlefield. It's not arrogance in her face, and it's not exhilaration either, after defeating me for the third time Johto's normal-type gym leader had a face of pity, pity! No other loss (and there have been many) has ever humiliated me as much.

I pay the mandatory fee for losing the challenge and leave the gym as soon as possible in case anymore onlookers plan to comment more on the battle. Before healing my team I decided to walk around Goldenrod City for a little while, trying to put my mind elsewhere, I perused the afternoon for a distraction from my defeat. It came walking out of the Goldenrod Radio Tower.

"Martin!" Alita Voss saw me walking and comes over, a smile on her face, "So…?"

"So what?" I knew what she was asking, I had told her yesterday I planned to challenge the gym around this time. I actually felt fairly confident yesterday about how the challenge would work out. She bought into it, wished me luck and everything, it's too bad that's not all it takes to win badges.

"Did you win?" her smile stayed firm as she spoke, and I immediately was disappointed in myself. If I had tried harder maybe, the smile could stay for a bit longer, but I lost, not as miserably as the last two times, but it didn't matter how close I got if the end result was the same.

"Not exactly…" I trailed off reaching a hand behind my head, idly scratching the ends of my black hair and breaking eye contact.

"Not exactly"?! You just admitted you lost, and you sounded like an idiot doing it! Smooth move Rhodes. I was right, she wiped her smile off and brushed a strand of brown hair behind her ears. To onlookers we must have looked like idiots, staring at the ground and grasping for something to say in each other's company.

Luckily, Alita broke the silence before I delivered another genius line, "Well it's still alright!" She looked up and my shoes suddenly became a lot less interesting to look at compared to her pale blue eyes. Looking back at the radio tower Alita offered "I just got off for lunch, do you want to come get something to eat with me?" I opted not to risk spitting out some more idiotic dialogue and just nodded and smiled at the invitation.

We ate together at a small restaurant not far from the Goldenrod Radio Tower, Alita helped the people who work there and enjoyed talking about her experiences at the place, she loved being there despite her not actually earning a wage, (she's only thirteen like myself) it's entertaining to hear her speak so happily about it, and the conversation impedes me from thinking or talking about the gym battle. I know she's probably curious, but she's also smart enough not to make me recount my failure. Alita and I met soon after I came to Goldenrod City and quickly became friends, between her hanging out at the tower and my training we didn't see each other very often but it was still pleasant when we ended up hanging out, it's too bad the circumstances couldn't be better.

Our meal ended and though she'd be late to getting back to her work, Alita wanted to accompany me on my way to the pokécenter for the healing of my two pokémon. I was glad she did. Nurse Joy took the pokéballs from me and I noticed a familiar figure standing in front of the PC not too far away. "Oh no…" I grimaced as the trainer finished his task on the PC a recognized me.

Alita noticed the expression on my face and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Hey buddy!" Jerome Cailin sauntered over with a self-satisfied smile and a voice dripping with sarcasm, he'd no doubt heard of my challenge's results from someone who was watching the fight. Even though he's about a year younger than me, J.C. (as most people know him) still had a few inches over my wiry frame and right now he looked down with a grin the Cheshire Cat would be jealous of. "Tough break today, huh?" J.C. failed to hold back a snicker.

"I'm glad you're keeping up on current events." I looked away waiting for the nurse's return so I could leave. He pressed with his taunting and I could see Alita looking for a way to defuse the situation between us.

"To be honest, I was floored when I heard the news that your wooper and magby weren't enough!" Taking shots at my weak-looking pokémon was one of J.C.'s favored tactics. "It's okay though man," his laughter at my loss and sarcastic remarks weren't slowing down anytime soon, "like they always say, 'fourth time's the charm' right?"

When I first came to Goldenrod City a few months ago, J.C. was one of the first trainers I battled, suffice to say, I lost, that and my horrible track record in all of my battles was what sparked Jerome to go through this ritual of put-downs everytime he found me in public.

The kid hung around Alita and I, still trying to goad me into some sort of response. Even though she had pokémon, Alita didn't battle, she thought fights were a waste of time since she had no interest in becoming a pokémon trainer. She could really only look on as I resisted the urge to respond to J.C.

"Martin?" Nurse Joy called me over and I retrieved the two pokémon from her, happy to have them back and healthy.

J.C. took the opportunity to ask, "Now that your punching bags are healthy again," he took out one of his pokéballs as he speaks, "what do you say to a quick match? We'll just use one pokémon from our teams, I can't spend too much time giving out free lessons."

I thought about it, sure at that point I had lost to J.C. twice, but I had also defeated him once, according to Jerome though, it was just luck. I thought to the training I had done in preparation for the day's battle. Not wanting to let all of that amount to what seemed like no progress for my pokémon and I, I decided to accept the challenge, I needed some proof that my training, that my trying to improve was actually amounting to something. Opening my mouth to accept his challenge I remembered Alita standing next to me. If I lost then it'd be a replay of my gym battle, except the pity would take over her face and not my opponent's. I looked at her and tried to ask permission without uttering a word, I didn't want to battle and force her to stick around for the result if she needed to return to the radio tower, or if she simply didn't want to see.

She nodded, J.C. grinned, I accepted, and the three of us walked out of the pokécenter. We battled in front of the Global Terminal which wasn't very crowded at the time. "Alright you ready now, bud?"

I chose my pokémon, the magby given to me by my father in place of a conventional starter. I drew the pokéball out and prepared to release my strongest pokémon. Jerome too chose which pokéball to use and readied for the fight. We released our partners, ready to battle against one another.

Magby cried out in response to his pokémon appearing, J.C.'s Elekid materialized and growled in return. The battle had begun and I couldn't tell whether Alita or I was more nervous about the outcome.

"Start the battle, Cumulo! Use quick attack!" His speed didn't allow Magby any opportunity to even think about dodging. The battle had only just started and I was at a disadvantage already.

"Ember, Magby!" He turned swiftly and launched the fire move, connecting with J.C.'s Cumulo. Magby looked determined to win, where I got depressed about losses, he got mad, being defeated here didn't seem like an option for him.

"Shock wave, now!" The attack was slower than the last, and required time to charge. I seized the chance and employed one of the few strategies at my disposal that won me battles.

"Smokescreen, don't let him hit!" Obscuring my enemy's vision and blasting it with ranged attacks was a strategy that usually worked in fights, unfortunately I forgot that the shock wave is an attack that's almost certain to hit, and the mistake resulted in Magby taking a direct hit.

"Nice play Rhodes!" J.C. cackled at his own comedic genius. I shook it off and continued with the fight, trying to focus a bit more.

"Use smog Magby!" The thick gray smoke plumed from my pokémon and mingled with the black of my previous move. With the dangerous smoke there it was hard to tell whether or not the attack dealt damage but either way Cumulo was ordered out of the the large cloud of two different gases.

J.C. spoke another direction to his pokémon "Use swift this time!" Bright yellow stars materialized and were shot at Magby, giving him no time to dodge or stop the attack.

"Retaliate with fire spin!" A strand of vibrant flames are launched towards Cumulo encircling him in the painful blaze. I felt confident, the match was pretty even at this point, and I was certain that there was at least a chance I could win against him.

With physical attacks out of the question now that his partner was surrounded by flames. I had forced the pokémon to only use special attacks, unless J.C. was willing to risk Cumulo taking greater damage than he was already sustaining. "Quick attack, Cumulo!" I guess it was the latter then, and though the flames slowed the pokémon down, and it pained him to do so, the elekid landed his attack and the two combatants stood, backs facing each other.

I ended the silence with a command, the battle was at its conclusion and I knew the next attack would decide the winner so I took the initiative, "Use ember and finish this fight, Magby!" He turned and reared his head back to launch the small flames for our first victory in a while, but was unable to spit the attack out. At that point I noticed small bolts of electricity running through my partner's body. "Crap," I muttered under my breath, ever since our first battle, Cumulo's Static ability had been an annoyance and today's match turned out to be no exception.

"Ha! My strategy paid off! I knew paralyzing your wimp of a pokémon would ensure me the win, and man was I right!" J.C. smiled triumphantly, and I looked over to see Alita's face and find what was present there. I had been right, the same look Goldenrod City's gym leader had given me, an expression of pity was clear, and my humiliation before didn't compare to what I felt now. "Now let's actually finish this fight, Cumulo, shock wave!"

I waited for the inevitable bolt of electricity to deliver my second loss of the day. Elekid turned around now to face my magby and charged it's attack, the lightning coursed back and forth between the prongs on it's head in preparation. "Ele-ki..." Cumulo's attack, didn't launch, instead of a vicious electric attack striking my pokemon elekid crumpled to ground incapacitated and clearly unable to fight.

"WHAT?!" I was thinking along the same lines, but J.C. yelled it out and ran to his pokémon's side examining him. I walked towards mine as well to see if he was still alright. Upon learning the battle was over, Magby fell back to lay down, clearly drained after the contest, he'd need another trip to the center after this.

Returning Magby to his pokéball, J.C. laughed a bit and did the same with Elekid. "You've got to be the luckiest…" his sentence trailed off and he shook his head. "Flame Body, huh? I'm not sure which attack did it but at some point, Magby burned Cumulo. Looks like the damage was enough to do him in." I was pretty surprised, I of course knew Magby had the ability, but I didn't even notice it take effect during the fight. "Not bad, getting lucky twice against me in battle is pretty impressive." Starting to protest, I realized it was just luck, I didn't have any sort of strategy to utilize the ability, I was just fortunate it activated.

As J.C. walked away from his loss with his injured pokémon the small crowd that had gathered to watch the fight slowly dispersed and I searched among them for Alita. We saw each other and she rushed over, the pity replaced with a bright smile now, thankfully. She congratulated me on the win and I invited her to walk with me to the center again for Magby to now be healed a second time in the afternoon. "No thanks, I'm late as it is to getting back to the tower. We should definitely meet up again though, next time on purpose."

I smiled at her, "Sounds like a plan, I'll see you then!" We waved goodbye and I walked away from the site of my victory. I began to stroll around town again, instead of self-loathing though, I was confident and happy in myself. Before finally turning towards the pokécenter I glanced over at the Goldenrod City Gym.

_I'll beat that gym, and all others that follow it,_ I thought to myself then, _even if wasn't today, and even if it isn't tomorrow, I'll definitely catch up to you, Valentine._


	2. Chapter 2

I had been training every day for a week since my battle with J.C. I was more anxious than ever now to win against Whitney. All I had been doing was thinking of how to beat her, no trainer had posed this great a challenge to me and I wasn't going to back down easily. The challenge drove me to push my pokémon to their limits during training. I had considered getting a third for my team, but having to train another pokémon to be obedient and battle-ready would take too much time, I wanted to win, but more importantly, I wanted to win now. There was no time for slacking or slouching, I had to get past this city and move on with my journey, there wasn't time for much else, including my rendezvous with Alita.

It's not that I didn't want to see her, but this time I knew I would win, or at least that I should, after three losses I felt entitled to a victory. So meeting her, there would be a sense of finality to it, at least for me there would be. Eventually I decided I'd meet her the night before my gym challenge like I did last time. I told her that just before she stepped into the Radio Tower and she agreed smiling, I had a six days until we'd meet again and my battle would be in a single week. Seven days for training in the wild, for observing Whitney's other battles, and for preparing to leave Goldenrod City and progress towards the end of my pokémon journey.

J.C. made sure to keep his distance from me, I'm sure he bragged about how I only beat him through sheer luck, but if he lost again then I'd have a winning record against him, the self-proclaimed "Rookie-Champion of Goldenrod City" was dishonest as he was conceited. In fact the guy hadn't even embarked on any kind of journey despite being two years past the time most trainers did so.

When the night came I waited outside the radio tower where we planned to meet. I tugged at my shirt's collar, I figured it was nice to put something on besides my scuffed up training gear, but it seemed my only nice shirt had gotten a little small, even the blue sleeves struggled not to tear around my shoulders and even the deep blue color had faded somewhat. I saw Alita exit the building and walked over, we said hello and began walking. Our conversation popped and crackled about nothing, and we had nothing planned for the early evening, she just took me for what I hoped would be the last time I saw Goldenrod City.

We ended up by the water and a sunset appeared, framing the cheesy scene between us. "Wow," she breathed out, "I could see this every day, and never get tired of it." She stared out smiling at the horizon.

"I'm pretty glad I won't have to see anymore after tomorrow." I smiled out towards the orange sky, oblivious to Alita's quiet hand wiping a tear away.

"You know," she started saying, "each gym leader, they only get harder after this one. You don't have to go any further than here."

I thought I could see where she was going, trying to protect me from being crushed under the pressure, she wasn't the first to deter me from my journey for the same reason. "Don't worry about me, I'm determined to beat the league, no matter how hard it ends up being." I turned to face her, my broad smile meeting with her disheartened expression.

"That's not what I..." she trailed off and shook the look from her face, then under her breath, "You're so stupid."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" I was completely lost, and hadn't any idea why she was mad at me. "It's my dream to become the champion! How is it stupid to follow it?" I now looked deeply into her eyes, trying to glean an answer from her expression, her actions, and it dawned on me, a revelation so unbelievably obvious I was abashed to be so unaware of it. She wanted me to stay for her sake and not mine. I felt like a complete dolt when all I could breathe out was, "Oh..."

Alita looked down, then at me, then away once again before saying, "Yeah well, I hope you win I guess." She didn't mean it in the slightest, and if I was leaving the next day I didn't want this lie to be the last words she spoke to me. Though before I got the chance to try to fix the damage I had done she spoke again, "You know, Martin, there can only be one champion, and it's not going to be you." Instead of the goodbye I wanted, she walked away and the truth ended up hurting a lot more.

* * *

><p>"Martin! There can only be one champion, and it's not going to be you!" Another girls voice yells the same words at me, before I had even started my pokémon journey.<p>

I smiled at Valentine Ayers, my best friend for years, a girl who dreamed of being pokémon champion. At the time she said this we were starting our journey, it was her twelfth birthday and though mine had been two months earlier I chose to wait for her to get her starter (a cyndaquil) before I left New Bark Town.

My father gave me a magby as my own starter, hatched from an egg from his own magmortar. When he was a child my father had been a great trainer, and he passed the dream down to me through his pokémon. I was nothing short of ecstatic to start my journey and now I finally could.

When Valentine said those words to me I took them as a challenge, an invitation to be her rival, and to travel Johto battling alongside her. I didn't know how things would turn out when our travels started. Valentine was a prodigy, smoking trainers left and right, blowing through gyms, and of course steamrolling over me when we fought. I had liked her for so long, and not only as a friend, but now she became something else. When battling, Valentine was someone totally different, she was merciless, intelligent, and way out of my league, in more respects than one.

At our first gym Valentine won of course, but I lost, meaning I had to remain in the town until I could become strong enough to win. To Valentine it meant I was a delay and a hindrance, a minor obstacle in between her and destiny, and as with all others in her way, she eliminated me, and left Violet City by herself.

I figured that I was only held back slightly and that I could quickly catch up to her, but she was never slowed down and I only fell further behind her. Our calls to each other became more and more infrequent as she moved forward and I struggled to keep moving, facing hardship at every turn to catch up as she effortlessly battled her way through the league.

My lack of battling talent not only created a rift between Valentine and I, but also my dad gradually became more and more disheartened at the fact his child wouldn't carry on his dream of defeating the Elite Four like he never could. It seemed every update I gave only made the situation worse, no matter what the news was, it acted as a reminder that his son was a failure. It did the same for me too.

The journey turned from one of excitement and opportunity, to an adventure filled with stress and despair and all the while I continued to work in the hopes that I would drastically improve, or have some sort of breakthrough that would allow me to become the trainer that I wanted to be. But that never happened, and the difficult journey continued until Goldenrod City, where I had yet to win my third gym badge.

* * *

><p>After the abrupt ending to our, whatever the hell it ended up being, I thought about everything that had happened so far. I thought that I could win the gym battle this time, but even so, I didn't know what I'd do after that, all that lied ahead were five more gyms each even more difficult. They would be truly strenuous, but even if I beat all eight of them, I'd have to face the Elite Four, and then the champion, who could end up being Valentine herself.<p>

If I continued, and battled until there was no possible way to continue, I could go home knowing I gave it everything I had. My father would probably approve of that and though I would probably never be as good as her, I could at least be able to say that I tried to match with Valentine, and my days as a trainer would be an accomplishment for me.

My other option would be to avoid the hardship and despair of battling and losing. I'd be able to stop doing something that I didn't think I liked and continue on with my life otherwise. But if I did so, it would just be considered the same as giving up, right?

I contemplated deep into the night. I thought, and eventually made up my mind, that I'd decide later. Regardless of what decision I made, my battle with Whitney was planned to take place the next day and from there I'd choose the future of my journey.


	3. Chapter 3

There was a definite heaviness in the air that morning. My mind was clear, but it seemed everything was tense, like the air might start to crack if I moved too quickly, or spoke too much. It was a bright Saturday, and most people would spend it watching battles at the Goldenrod Gym.

Most people were forced to stand if they hadn't gotten a seat earlier in the day, and for whatever reason, the crowd was as big as Martin had ever seen it. The crowd and the cheering was so intense in fact, that announcers had come over from the Goldenrod City Radio Tower, broadcasting the battles across the air.

I sat in a waiting room, my pokémon snug inside their capsules, and me trying to keep from pacing. I couldn't even handle staring at the screen or out the windows towards the live battles happening below. "Martin Rhodes?" a young man's voice blurted out from behind me, and I turned to face it. A uniformed, lanky man was halfway inside the door frame. "You'll be on after this battle, might want to get down there."

I nodded and then cracked a grin, trying to defuse the tenseness I felt, "Aren't you gonna wish me luck?"

The man's dark eyes looked down to his clipboard and spoke again, "You're the Martin Rhodes that's lost thrice before this?" His eyes met mine again and I nodded. "You'll need a lot more than luck today, pal," he said before abruptly leaving.

Before I got up to head to the elevator down I could only think, _Who the hell says thrice?_

* * *

><p>I stood in the dim den of waiting before the fight. I breathed heavy, and waited for my cue. Right now there was an emptiness on the dirt fighting arena as Whitney healed her pokémon and I listened to the commercials of the radio broadcast. An advertisement for a sale on repel suddenly ended and I realized I was now listening to words of an announcer now being spoken outside the heavy double door leading out to my gym challenge.<p>

The gym leader was introduced. Cheers rang out. Whitney probably waved, maybe a shot a wink to a lucky spectator. I waited.

"And now, you might've seen him before, folks! Here he is, for his _fourth_ gym challenge against our incredible Whitney. The next challenger, Luckless Martin Rhodes!"

The challenger had been introduced. Jeers were called out. Laughs were had. Whitney grinned. I seethed.

_Luckless. Luckless?! People had a nickname for me? Is that why the whole crowd was here? Did scores of people come out to laugh at me?! There's no way, is there?_

I looked out at the gym leader and was enraged, I was determined not to lose this battle, not a chance in the world. I drew my wooper, I knew she'd use her clefairy first. The battle went like such last time, wooper beat out her first pokémon, and then her miltank destroyed both her and my magby.

"Go, Clefairy!" Whitney started the fight.

"Wooper, let's go!" I answered back.

The pokémon seemed miles apart, but in reality, they only had about forty yards between them on the dirt ring, and I decided on my first strike. "Wooper, mud bomb, go!" I tried out her new move, brand new to this ring, and the pokémon launched out the hard-packed attack, firing straight across the ring, but was no use.

"Dodge it!" Whitney commanded. Clefairy obeyed, a swift move to the left. "Doubleslap!" and a glowing hand came streaking towards my side of the field.

"Out of the way of it!" Wooper tried to mimic the opponent's dodge but was clotheslined by the foe. Clefairy struck once, twice, _three times, _four, and the fifth strike slapped Wooper back towards me. Wooper rolled back, gathering dirt, until she caught herself on her two squat legs. "C'mon, Wooper, use slam attack!"

Wooper charged for the attack, sprinting forward with a determined look on her face, and she rushed and leapt forward, "Mimic, Clefairy!" a short cry of response from the Fairy-Type and she reflected Wooper's own movements, and the two pokémon struck each other in mid-air before each fell back again, their attack power equally matched. "Doubleslap, again!"

Here was my chance, I could seize upon the lesser strength of her strike and take down the pokémon this time, "Again, slam attack!" Wooper rushed forward and was about to lay into the foe until Clefairy's hand was able to quickly lash out. Wooper was struck in the head and fell back, but Clefairy continued the assault, one, two, three, four, five more strikes, another perfect combination and Wooper tumbled back again.

I grimaced at the pain she must have felt but was ready to continue, "Wooper, use-" suddenly a cry came from the pokémon, and I looked down to her. I couldn't believe it, already out of commision, Wooper was down for the count, and the referee agreed, marking the pokémon unable to battle.

Wooper was recalled. The announcer gave his commentary instead of the play-by-play, "According to our reports, Martin Rhodes last battle started out much better and he still lost!" the announcer exclaimed. "With no new pokémon registered, he doesn't have much of a chance for this battle."

People cried out in agreement. The crowd's sentence had been passed, I was boring, bad, "Quit wasting our time!" was the popular chant. A tear fell from my face, I thought I was used to this, and I was so dreadfully wrong. I turned, around, wiping the tear from my eyes, knowing this battle was over. My pokéball fell from my belt and clattered to the ground, silent and leaving me.

"MAGBY!" a huge cry, no- a roar could be heard. It reverberated all across the stadium, drowning out every other sound, silencing every insult, perplexing anyone within earshot. I looked behind me. There he was, my starter, standing fierce and ludicrously enraged. He faced my enemies, he protected me, and he looked ready to fight for me.

A final tear fell from my eyes, and my pokémon ran forward to fight, not waiting for my command. Whitney and her partner stood far too astounded to react, but Magby didn't wait for a moment, jumping above Clefairy and a spew of fire flew out from my partner, completely draping the enemy in ruby tongues of flame. Magby ended his attack, and landed atop his feet, while Clefairy fell to the ground.

The crowd stayed silent, watching, mouths gaping, and even the announcers were stunned to only breathing into their microphones, and forgetting that tons of people waited for their words to explain what sort of hellish beast just roared from their radios.

Whitney was the first to really react. She shook her head, coming out of whatever spell Magby had put her under, and then putting a grin onto her face. "Not bad, kid, now let's see what he can do against Miltank!" Sure enough the pokémon appeared in a bright flash. Now people in the stadium started following suit, coming aware of what was happening and talking to the person next to them, making sure they weren't in a dream. The announcers tried to describe everything that had happened in the span of time, and their uncertain voices soon again were ringing out through their microphones and sure enough the whole crowd was now ecstatic to see this battle's conclusion.

"I'll have to end this quick, sorry, but good luck next time! Miltank, Rollout!" Whitney's signature pokémon immediately rolled up into a ball and started rolling forward swiftly and I prepared to give my command. There was no need. Magby spat a short burst of fire, and then dived out of the way as quick as he could. The burst of flames slammed against Miltank and then split apart, not even slowing down the attack.

The dodge was fortunately successful, and Magby recovered from his evasive maneuver, standing straight up and facing Miltank again. "Nice job," Whitney was speaking again, "let's up the tempo, partner, Rollout again!" And again Miltank rolled across the earth, though far quicker this time, Magby didn't even risk shooting out any attacks, and just narrowly avoided being struck by the oncoming sphere of destruction.

I wasn't even spouting commands, and Magby was having the fight of his life. I knew this was truly the lowest point of my career, when my input was holding back my pokémon, I was worse than useless, I had been a handicap. I refused to be that anymore.

"We'll get him this time, Miltank, flatten him for sure, Rollout!" Faster than the two previous two strikes, Miltank began hurtling towards Magby, but before he tried to make his dodge, I spoke out a command. I could only pray Magby would respond.

"Magby! You have to face the strike!" The pokémon glanced at me, "Trust me!" Magby looked back with his arms outstretched in front of himself, preparing to be crashed into. Sure enough, Miltank rocketed towards the arms pointed out, and Magby was pushed back five, ten, almost fifteen yards, sliding backwards, but now Magby had the pokémon completely halted in his hands, and Miltank was totally held.

"What?!" Whitney was now exclaiming, "What happened! Miltank's way too strong to be caught by your pokémon!"

I couldn't help but relish the moment, "You sure about that?" Whitney was appalled at the comeback from a trainer she'd beaten so often. "Magby, use Ember!" and at once the red stream bellowed from Magby's mouth and Miltank was completely engulfed.

At the force of the attack the two pokémon split apart, and flew away from each other. Magby on his feet, Miltank wasn't so lucky. Whitney looked on aghast, her pokémon once again burned to the crisp as a result of the attack.

I was surrounded by stunned faces, they weren't in silence like they had been, but they were whispering, only clapping once I'd received my badge from Whitney, and the announcers on the sideline gave out their obligatory congratulation. The clapping ended, and I walked back to the double doors I had come from.

When I left the gym, I wasn't really smiling. I still didn't know what to think of my victory. All I could do was look at my gym badge, and I made my decision, that I'd go heal my pokémon, though I'd take the scenic route. The one that went by the Radio Tower.


	4. Chapter 4

Three gyms beaten, I looked at my badges. I needed to talk with Alita before I left. I didn't even know where I was leaving _to. _Maybe she'd have an answer. Even if she didn't it'd be nice to talk with her.

I saw her in the mid-afternoon, she was walking out of the Radio tower, right where I was waiting.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey," she replied.

"So, my battle today-"

"I saw it."

"You did?!"

Alita nodded, "Congrats, but, I don't think you should move on."

I was stunned, _What did she say? _"What did you say?"

"I don't think you can do it, the other gyms, not quickly anyways. You might've won, but it took you _four_ tries!" Alita had a ferocity in her voice, "Are you just going to keep insanely challenging gyms, losing, just… just…" she didn't struggle to find the word, but to let me hear it, "waste your life?"

Now I was silenced. She took to the opportunity to continue, her voice less emphatic now, "You should find a different dream, Martin. This one isn't for you, I think you need to understand that. Every time you lose, you just get so depressed." Alita shook her head again, "I'm sorry I was so blunt, I'm just trying to help you."

Alita walked back into the tower, and I sat down where I had been waiting, mouth ajar. I tried to convince myself she was wrong, that it's wasn't true. But the more I thought about it, the more her words sounded convincing. I did feel sorry for myself whenever I lost. It had taken me a ridiculous amount of tries to beat that gym. Was this even my dream? My father had handed my the pokémon. I didn't even leave until the girl I liked left, and it was fun until she went ahead of me.

I got up with my mind made. I'd leave Goldenrod. I'd go back home, whatever my dad said, however Valentine thought of me, my adventuring days were over. I looked around, and couldn't think of a single thing left to do in Goldenrod City, I was ready to leave.

As I took my steps just towards the city's boundary, a familiar voice called out to me, J.C.'s own. "Hey, Rhodes, wait up!" and I stopped in my tracks. I figured it wouldn't hurt too much to get taunted one more time, for old time's sake. He ran up to me, and then stopped breathing audibly with a grin on his face. "Where you goin', man? Ain't Ecruteak the other way?" he asked.

I was about to reply with my plans for the future but he spoke up again, "Yeah I was on my way to Violet City just now. Figured I could start here, but might as well go back and do it right, eh?" I looked at him funny, and was going to ask what he meant, but he answered before I could, "That battle yesterday wasn't too shabby. Actually made me wake up and realize I should be doing this stuff." My face further contorted into confusion but he continued on, "You had better get going towards Ecruteak now, or I'll catch up pretty easy."

Finally I managed to get a sentence in, "I quit my journey, as of a couple minutes ago, I'm done."

J.C. looked at me funny, now he was the one to be confused, but as he was silent, I decided to continue on my way, back to my hometown until I was again stopped by his voice, "Rhodes. Lemme tell you something." I turned back, both of us looking with a couple yards from each other, "You're a sore loser," he continued, "I know you love training, just as much as I do. But when you lose, damn you take that personally, that's all that makes you want to quit." I was about to protest but he still continued his speech, "but, you beat me, and now you're gonna quit?!" He suddenly turned angry, his face looking like he was about to beat me down himself.

"Look, J.C.-"

"No _you _look! You can't just beat me and quit, that's cheating!" He pointed a finger at me, "I may not be able to make you stay on your journey, but you gotta promise me this at least: that you'll keep battling _forever_ until you lose again!" I was shocked to say the least, at his wild condition, "After you lose, you can do whatever you want with your sorry life." He stood silent for a moment, letting the words truly reach me. "Deal?"

I was beside myself, everything about this conversation had come from left field, yet I was still able to utter out a quiet word, "Deal."

J.C.'s enraged expression was erased, and he took off, walking beyond me towards the true beginning of his own journey.

I sauntered back to the town, walking slowly, replaying over and over in my head my encounter. When I finally came to my senses, I realized where I was, the other end of the town, leading towards Ecruteak City, towards the next gym, towards my real future.

"Finally," Alita said somewhere behind me, and then came up to my side, "Ready to go?"

This entire day had been unbelievably strange, I could only let out a "What?"

Alita looked down at her shoes, "What I said earlier, it was probably wrong of me, but that was a test." She then met my eyes, "I wanted to know just how dedicated you were to this dream, before I joined you on it."

"Joined me, but, Alita you have your own dream to fulfill! You want the world to hear your voice, right?" Alita nodded solemnly now.

"I want the world to hear my voice, but I think, I at least want to see as much of the world as I can before I try talking to it. And what better way is there to do that than on a journey?" Alita smiled, and I couldn't help but do the same back at her.

"So let's go!"

* * *

><p><strong>Hours earlier, at the Goldenrod Gym <strong>(According to Alita)

"Damn, I didn't think Rhodes had that kind of will in him." J.C. was speaking, just at the point of Martin's match in which Magby had defeated Clefairy.

"What do you mean, that's all his pokémon, isn't it?" Alita spoke back. The two had come across each other earlier in the battle, and were luckily able to snag some seats in the stadium.

J.C. shook his head, "For a captured pokémon to just have that kind of will, it's… impossible. It could only have come from his trainer."

Alita took a glance over at Martin, looking more defeated than the singed Clefairy had, "You think Martin has that much of a spine right now?"

"Maybe not right now," J.C. laughed in his reply, "At some point though, Rhodes must've had some sorta spark in him, something real fierce. Greater than anything I've ever seen, in him or otherwise. No that will came from a Rhodes in the past, at some point that kid probably had an insane amount of volition in his body, and that's where that pokémon got it from."

"That was what Martin was like then, at one point?"

J.C. nodded, "Damn, I'd kill to see him like that live," he grinned as he continued, "Must have been terrifying."

* * *

><p>I had then made my decision, as I walked along my journey, Alita alongside me. I'd continue this journey, I just couldn't lose. Not even once. No pressure.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Our walking had been almost silent since our departure from Goldenrod City. We'd said a couple things to each other here and there, but it seemed we were incapable of keeping up the conversation, it just felt to strange to me. I always had stuff to say back in the city, but now it was different for whatever reason.

I broke the silence between us when I spotted a figure some distance away. "Hey, let's take a detour around the clearing," I said, trying to keep casual.

"What? C'mon don't you see that person up there, he might be a trainer!" Alita said excitedly. "You should go up and battle!" It seemed the monotonous walk had gotten to Alita, now she was desperate just for something to happen.

I tried to come up with an excuse, but none came to mind. She seized onto my hesitation, "Martin," she said, "you aren't scared to fight him are you?"

She had hit the nail on the head. That last thing I needed was to lose to some random trainer on the way to Ecruteak. "It's just that, well, we don't know what kind of person he is! He might be a thief, some kidnapped, or even just some generally shady guy!" I exclaimed, truly struggling to come up with my third example.

"Just because you don't wanna lose doesn't mean you can just run away from trainers, is this your strategy for taking on the gym as well?" I searched my mind for something to say, but Alita rolled on, "You've gotta fight this guy! If he's a trainer, go forward, fight with bravery and might and all that crap. Achieve your next victory!"

Despite its corniness, Alita's pep talk was actually working on me. I _was _getting pretty fired up. Soon enough I started running ahead towards the clearing, with Alita not far behind. I then jumped through the treeline and point to the figure I had seen. Then as I appeared before him I spoke out, all seemingly in one quick breath, "Hello there, sir if you are a trainer would you take the time out of your day to fight me if not thank you for your consideration!" From the spouted off words and sprint I actually was tired and had to put my hands on my knees while I waited for a response from the man.

I looked up, and it was a man, dressed in a dark green tracksuit complete with a headband wrapped around his bald dome, on his back he wore a pretty large black pack. He was actually pretty tall and muscular, he wasn't really that old, but his physique certainly made him to seem that way.

Once I lifted my head to meet his eyes, still waiting for a response, he gave one, "Any other time, kid, I'd be jumping at the chance, but right now I've got a bit of a situation. Can't really battle with you at the moment." He spoke with a much higher voice than I was expecting, I could barely hear Alita behind me stifle a laugh at him speaking.

Before I could ask what he meant, a pair of two girls came appearing out from the treeline as well. They each looked like young teenagers, and in fact were very similar in appearance, and were even wearing vividly colored pants and t-shirts that matched. Both a bit taller than Alita though one had long black hair, and the other had short pink hair. Short-hair spoke first, "Cliff, what happened? We heard someone yell out," she then looked at Alita and I and spoke again, "who're they?"

The man in the track suit, Cliff replied, "The culprits behind the yelling." He turned away from the girl and now spoke to Alita and I, "You two wouldn't have happened to seen two shady guys walking around, would you?"

"You're the first shady people we've seen!" Alita replied before I could politely respond with a "No." I could only look at her like she was crazy, but she continued on, "Why's that? And what do you mean you couldn't battle?" I couldn't tell if she was disappointed because her entertainment had been robbed or because her pep talk had gone to waste.

Cliff looked down, discouragement in his eyes, and the two girls made the same expression, but Cliff was able to answer, "A pair of criminals stole our teams of pokémon after battling us with their own, so we've been looking for them. It couldn't have been too long ago, we just, just…" Cliff then started to quickly tear up, and within seconds he was bawling loudly. The two girls behind him seemed somewhat annoyed by this.

"Cliff this is like, the eighth time," Long-hair spoke now, "can you try to get ahold of yourself?" The other girl put a hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down. I couldn't exactly blame the guy, and though the girls were probably annoyed, it seemed they were on the verge of tears as well. Long-hair then remembered we were there and said, "Sorry to have bugged you guys, you don't need to stick around, we'll be all good, honest."

Alita and I started walking forward past the trio, but as we were about to leave the clearing I turned and ran to them. "I'm gonna help you look," I said to them.

All three turned to look, and Long-hair asked the question on all of their faces, "What?"

I nodded and Alita caught up to me now, "I'll help you look for those guys, it's not exactly right, what they did, and I can't just leave you guys here on a manhunt with no way to defend yourselves." I nodded again, this time affirming the conviction for myself, "I'll do it." and I was convinced.

"But, you could," Cliff fought through his tears to utter the words, "you could lose your pokémon if you do find them!"

I smiled, "Don't worry, I can't lose, it'll be fine."

* * *

><p>The party now split into two groups, Alita and Cliff in one, as Alita had her own pokémon that could draw the criminals out, and a pokégear to call me on. The other would be the two girls, Penny (Short-hair) and Louise (Long-hair) were with me.<p>

We had been walking for about twenty minutes making some light conversation, when I finally asked, "So what did those criminals look like, exactly?"

The two girls looked at each other for a moment, and seemed to be conversing with just their expressions before Penny could answer, a loud beeping went off on a device in her pocket. The girl reached into her pocket and pulled out her own pokégear, she pressed button and the chirping ceased. "I thought you didn't have pokégear," I said to the girl. Wordlessly, she and Louise smiled and each pulled a small pokéball from their pocket, "I thought you didn't have pokémon," I said, very distressed by the whole situation.

"Sorry about this, kid, but we'll be taking your pokémon," Louise said.

My eyes grew wide at the declaration, but I was still able to utter out a wimpy, "Um… no." Though the way I said it made it sound more like a question than a protest. At the refusal both girls threw out their pokémon, and each exploded onto the forest floor, Penny's a pancham, and Louise's a teddiursa.

I recognized the battle, and drew out my own partners, my wooper and magby to fight against them. Penny now spoke, "Good, it wouldn't have been fun otherwise."

The two started the battle before I could respond back, "Fury swipes!" from Louise.

"Comet Punch!" courtesy of Penny.

Both cub pokémon came hurtling towards my pair separately, and it was strikingly disarming to have to command two pokémon at the same time, and by the time I was able to call out, "Dodge!" I realized just how much of a handicap I was at here, having to split my attention between the two of them.

At the command, both my team members dove to the inside, coming closer to each other and sidestepping the oncoming flurries by their opponents. Now at a slight break in the battle, it seemed Magby made an effort to contact me, he put his hand to his chest, and his expression seemed as if it was asking some sort of question. I made a guess as to what it meant and answered back, "Don't worry, I might've failed you at the gym," I said, "but it won't happen ever again, I won't be the one to hold you both back."

The pair seemed to accept this, and now the girls made another offensive, Louise going first, "Teddiursa, Scratch!"

Penny followed up, "Arm Thrust, Pancham, attack them!"

I verbalized my retaliation, I may have to command two separate pokémon, but that meant my opponents were separate minds, my pokémon and I were one. "Magby, use Smog on Pancham!" a thick stream of smoke fired out in a line towards the small pokémon who took to a jump as per the evasive command of his trainer, but I pressed the attack further, "Wooper, shoot it down with Water Gun!" then as I saw the teddiursa close in to interrupt the attack, I issued another command, "Magby, block the strike for Wooper!"

The two pokémon responded quickly and precisely, Wooper spewed a short burst of water, striking down the helpless Pancham from the sky. Magby jumped in front of Wooper, putting up his arms to take the brunt of the damage from Teddiursa.

Pancham fell back from his airborne position to land in the middle of the Poison-type attack, starting to cough and wheeze from inhaling the gas, even after taking my wooper's strike. Teddiursa on the other hand jumped back after clawing at Magby, who stood fast against the charge. Now isolated from his partner, and lacking any ranged attacks for Louise to issue him, I utilized the distance and tried to end this battle. "Wooper, Magby, use Mud Bomb and Ember, hit him with both!"

Both pokémon reared back and charged their attacks inside their mouths and after a moment, each launched out the projectiles, pinning the teddiursa between them and disallowing any sort of dodge, the pokémon was down for the count.

I looked out on the downed pokémon, I had taken them out fairly easily, and these were criminals that I had been fighting! I was surprised at even myself, was conviction all it really took to fight with pokémon? Though the most surprising thing was perhaps that when I became aware of myself, I actually realized I was smiling. I was having fun with the battle despite it being under the worst circumstances.

Meanwhile, the two girls held their cub pokémon in their arms, trying to examine their unconscious partners. Until suddenly, I remembered, Alita. "Hey, you both!" I yelled at the pair of girls who looked, up shocked by the intensity of my voice. "Where's your buddy? Where'd he take Alita?!"


End file.
